Empty Graves
by Zeef
Summary: A story adopted from StorySmall: In a graveyard, we find that not everyone is who and what we think they are. Dipper and Mabel are tired of running. They want to stay in Gravity Falls forever. A good thing for them, that's actually a possibility.
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: **This story was adopted from StorySmall, a great writer on this site, who didn't want to continue this, so they let me adopt it. The idea is not mine, nor is Gravity Falls.

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_Rain, mud, and lightning_

_Gravestones pale and old_

_Hear the shovel scraping_

_Through the decay and mold_

A voice carried through the foggy cemetery, echoing off the gnarled trees that guarded the perimeter. Rows after rows of miscellaneous tombstones were strewn over the soggy ground. Some were placed straight and carefully, while others were bending to the ground, with chips and nicks at the corners. It had to have been nearly midnight as the blackness of night spread far over and beyond the town like the eerie fog that came along with it. The moon was blotted out by the heavy clouds which sent the rain down swiftly, but not hard onto the loose soil of the graveyard.

The warm orange glow of a small lantern shone through the fog. There was a soft_clink-clink _of the rain against the metal parts, along with a rhythmic and unstopping scrape of a shovel. A figure was visible in the light of the lantern: small, like a child who had yet to reach their teens, and scrawny, with arms like noodles and deep brown hair plastered against his forehead and neck, the figure shoved his shovel into the ground and tossed a load of dripping mud into an ever-growing pile beside his progress. And he sang, the boy, his voice low like a man's, but it still had a childish ring to it as he continued in his ominous rhyme.

_Scrape, scrape, digging deeper_

_Shovel, shovel, away the dirt_

_Toss aside the mud to find_

_Your sister…something, something…irt._

The singing broke off, and the figure straightened up, wiping the rain away from his eyes, and smeared mud across his forehead in the process. He stood inside an almost perfectly rectangular hole, except for the mud that slid down the sides and gathered in the corners as the rain loosed it up. Despite the inflow, the boy was still standing in a hole that reached down so far, he could have sat inside it and become invisible to a bystander.

_Dirt_

_Spurt_

_Flirt_

_Yogurt_

The figure looked out at the carefully carved tombstone before his deep pit. It was truly a beautiful piece of art, carved in a bright gray stone was a large cross with a vine twisted around it, and one large flower blooming open at the top. Etched in the stone was a name and date, but the boy's eyes quickly skipped past them as he sighed and resumed his dig.

_Shirt_

_Curt_

_Shmirt_

_Dang, why'd they bury you so deep?_

The figure carried on in silence. He moved like a robot, lifting and tossing the shovelfuls of mud away without even a moment's hesitation.

_Lift_

_Toss_

_Lift_

_Toss_

_Lift_

_Toss_

_Thunk!_

The shovel struck something hard.

"Finally," the boy muttered, tossing the shovel aside. He took the lantern and brought it down with him into the hole. Carefully, he bent down and scraped the mud away to reveal solid wood beneath him. A smile crept across his face and he set down the lantern and proceeded to scrape off all the mud to reveal a simple wooden coffin. The boy took a deep breath, then dug his fingers under the sides of the coffin. With a strong pull, the lid to the coffin tore off, nails and all.

Resting peacefully inside the box was a young girl, about the boy's age, with the same chocolate curls and small nose. She rested in a red velvet bed and was clad in a simple, yet elegant white dress. A bouquet of withering daffodils was clasped over her chest by her cold hands. The rain fell in little on her pale face and gathered in small beads. She looked so sweet and peaceful, like a fairytale princess trapped in a deep sleep, just waiting to be awoken.

"Hey, wake up," the boy whispered, giving her a little shake.

The girl groaned and turned her head away, causing some of the brunette strands to fall over her face.

"Hey, I just spent all night digging you up, get outta there," the boy said, crossing his arms, as if this was a completely normal occurrence.

The girl yawned and blinked her eyes open, "Geez, Dipper, what took you so long? I feel asleep." She blinked a few times as the falling raindrops got in her eyes. "Oh what, and it's raining!"

"I couldn't get everyone to leave until it was dark out," Dipper explained, lifting the dying flowers from her hands and setting them aside.

The girl stretched and held out her hands for Dipper to help her up. Dipper took her hands and pulled her into a standing position.

"Besides," he went on, "I had to wait and see how everyone talked about you at the funeral."

"Oh yeah, what'd they say?"

Dipper shrugged, "Oh, the typical stuff: she died too young, she was such a sweet spirit. I almost threw up."

"What, didn't you miss me?" the girl asked playfully.

"C'mon, Mabel, I had to sit through _another _funeral for my sister, watch her get buried_again_, and see _everyone_ crying." Dipper let out a laugh, "Sorry I laughed, but you should have seen Pacifica, she was bawling her eyes out!"

"I can't believe she can cry over anything but herself," Mabel joked.

"Apparently she can," Dipper replied. Mabel laughed a bit, then looked down, obviously sad that they'd have to move again.

Dipper hoisted himself out of the dug-up grave and helped his sister climb out, taking the lantern with her.

"Here, help me move this mud back," he said, picking up the shovel.

"I'm gonna miss this place," Mabel said thoughtfully as she shoved a pile of sod into the gaping hole. "Everyone was so nice…Grunkle Stan, Wendy, Soos. I think this is my favorite place so far."

"I think you're right," Dipper agreed, tossing a shovelful of dirt into the grave. "Half the people here weren't so bad. In fact…I almost felt bad about tricking them into thinking we were related to Stan."

"Did he cry at the funeral?" Mabel asked, stopping what she was doing to look Dipper in the eye.

"Yeah…he cried," Dipper said slowly, still moving the earth into the grave, "He felt really bad and was all worried about what he'd tell our parents. I'm almost glad we don't have any…so that he wouldn't feel so bad about it."

"Well, he doesn't know that," Mabel pointed out, "He thinks we have real actual parents that care for us and would pretty much die of sadness knowing we're gone."

Dipper didn't say anything

"Did you cry at the funeral?" Mabel asked, looking at her muddy feet.

"I pretended to, yes."

"No, like really cry. Like, are you going to miss everyone here?"

Dipper paused and thought for a moment. "Yeah…I guess so.," he admitted softly.

There was a moment of silence between them as they continued to fill the grave.

"You really liked Wendy, didn't you?" Mabel asked.

Dipper bit his lip. "Yeah, she…she was pretty great."

"What made her different from all the other girls you've met over the years?"

Dipper stopped moving the mud and leaned thoughtfully on his shovel.

"I dunno, I guess…I guess that of all the times we've pretended to be growing up around other people, they still treated us as just kids, not matter how smart or mature we acted, but Wendy…she sort of treated us as equals, you know? She didn't respect us like you'd respect an adult, but she didn't put down anything we said just because we were kids."

Mabel shrugged, "I thought Soos was pretty great too."

Dipper nodded and began shoveling the mud again.

There was a moment of silence between them, with only the sound of rain and the scraping of the shovel. Mabel looked down at her dress, wishing they'd buried her in one of her sweaters.

"Maybe we could go back…Maybe Soos would believe us," Mabel said at last, twirling her dripping hair in her fingers.

"Mabel, you know we can't do that. We're dead. Remember when we tried telling someone the truth? That we're ghosts?"

"Yeah, they went all wacko and tried to 'kill us' kill us," Mabel muttered, "But that was years ago, and the people who lived in Scrap Rusts were jerks anyway!"

Dipper sighed sadly. "Mabel, think of it this way, if we go back, and if Soos and Stan and Wendy all believe us and accept us for who we are, do you really think _anyone_ else is going to be okay with that? Seriously, Mabes, you just died."

Mabel stubbornly tossed a handful of mud at her gravestone.

"Wendy's already seen ghosts…and Soos would believe us…can't we just be with them and not tell anyone else?" she asked.

Dipper looked sadly off into the fog. "I don't want to risk that. I don't want to risk having the people we love so much turn on us, and even if they did accept us, we can't just hide in someone's closet forever. Someone, maybe even someone who can't stand us, would find out. I don't think we should take that chance."

"Well I do!" Mabel cried, standing up. "Dipper, this is the best chance we've ever had! We've 'died' a total of sixty times, and I'm through moving from place to place every time! I wanna stay here!"

For a moment, there was no noise but that of the rain steadily beating against the ground. Mabel sat stubbornly at the edge of her grave and let her feet dangle off the edge with her arms crossed.. Dipper came and sat next to her, gazing absentmindedly out into the rain.

"Please," Mabel whispered.

Dipper looked carefully at his twin sister. Her hair had gone straight from the rain and mud was splattered all over her white dress. He looked into her pleading brown eyes. Rain streaked down her face like tears. Dipper blew out a breath, "Okay, here's an idea. We drop a hint…a hint that we're, you know, inhuman, and if anyone catches on and accepts that, we can stay."

Mabel couldn't help but squeal. She squeezed Dipper tightly. "It's gonna work! It's gotta work!" she sang happily.

"Don't get your hopes up," Dipper said softly.

"I _am_ getting my hopes up," Mabel said, hugging him tighter, "Because I know that it's gonna work! _Someone _will accept us!"

Dipper looked out through the fog in the direction of the little town of Gravity Falls and prayed that somehow, Mabel was right.


	2. Discussion Between Ghosts

Hello, readers! This is the first chapter of the story that is completely my own, so if it sounds different than the first chapter, that's why. This chapter is shorter, because I wanted to get it out sooner than I usually do with stories, and because this is a tie between the first chapter and what the next few will be about. I wrote most of this chapter late at night while I had a headache and could barely see straight, so it might not be that good. _Please_ review this story. I adopted it, and I want to see if I'm nearly doing it justice so far.

* * *

The shack was dark when a drenched Dipper walked through the door. Stan had fallen asleep while watching TV again, so Dipper turned it of and went up to bed. Opening the door, the eternal boy cried out in surprise and almost fell down to the floor below him, because he wasn't expecting to see a certain somebody until the next day. Mabel was sitting on her bed, petting Waddles like she hadn't been buried six feet in the ground less than an hour earlier.

"M-Mabel! What are you doing here? I thought we agreed that you would hide in the forest for now!" Dipper cried.

"You said I would, but I never agreed to anything. I want to stay here," Mabel sighed.

"But if they see you- if they realize-"

"They'll think they're seeing things! Even if they don't, they'll think it's my ghost haunting the shack. It could help us convince them sooner," Mabel tried to explain, standing up.

"And then they bring in someone to 'free' your spirit from the house! Or Stan could try to catch you and use you as an exhibit! Mabel, think!"

"But, Dipper, it's dark and scary out there," Mabel whispered.

"And you're dead! Nothing can hurt you because it would pass right through you, if you let it,"

"But-"

"Do you want to risk our chance at staying here? Mabel, I know it's bad, but it's for the best. In the long run, you'll thank me," Dipper said, putting his hands on his sister's shoulders. "Trust me. You're the one who wanted to try this anyway."

"The rain is getting worse. I think it's going to hail..." Mabel mumbled, looking down.

This caused Dipper to hesitate. He knew she didn't like the cold, neither of them had since they died. They couldn't feel it like they used to, but it still brought up horrific memories of their death. They never stayed anywhere where it stayed below forty for months at a time, meaning they spent their winters in Florida or Louisiana. They fit right in with the other spirits of New Orleans.

"Mabel..."

"Plllleeeeaaaase?"

Dipper sighed, "But only for tonight. You have to leave before Stan comes to wake me up."

"Oh thank you, Dipper! Awkward sibling hug?" Mabel asked.

"...Awkward sibling hug," Dipper agreed reluctantly.

They embraced each other awkwardly. "Pat pat," they said simultaneously, then they broke apart and went to their beds.

"It's going to be okay, Mabel. Even if they don't accept us, we'll be okay," Dipper encouraged.

"I know, but it's going to work out here. Where else would it be better for us to live in forever than Gravity Falls, the town of mysteries and monsters?" Mabel asked.

"Honestly, I don't know," Dipper replied.

"... Are you going to change out of those clothes?" Mabel asked. Mabel had already changed and was wearing pajamas.

"Oh right, I forgot," Dipper replied, grabbing night clothes and leaving to the bathroom to get ready for bed.

"You know, Waddles. This town might just be absolutely perfect for us. Twin ghosts like us need to settle down eventually. I'm sure the other ghouls won't mind," Mabel said to her pig.

A little while later a clean and mostly dry Dipper walked back into the room wearing pajamas. "Alright, I'm ready for bed. After digging you up again, I'm as tired as Stan is after he actually does work," Dipper joked.

Mabel laughed, "He says to the girl who fell asleep in her coffin!"

"What does that have to do with being tired?"

"It means I slept like the dead... because I'm dead," Mabel elaborated.

"That still doesn't make a lot of sense," Dipper teased as he turned off the light.

"You don't make a lot of sense, Dipping Sauce!" Mabel exclaimed.

"Shh! Stan is downstairs, remember?"

"He's not waking up any time soon," Mabel said with a roll of her eyes.

"Let's just go to sleep, okay? It's late and I'm supposed to act alive tomorrow," Dipper suggested.

"Alllriiiight. Good night, Dipper,"

"Good night, Mabel," Dipper replied. Once he heard her snores he added, "I'm glad you didn't really leave me forever, Mabel Thayer." With that, Dipper Thayer rolled over and fell into a dreamless slumber.

Okay yes, they're ghosts, but not the usual ghosts, as explained in a later chapter. It all makes sense in my head. Anyway, that's that. Please review, favorite, or follow! Reviewers get a hint.


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